From inside the flap

The story is set within the Spherical Dimension, which contains billions of realities within its 0.5 mm exterior. The story involves the crew of The Green Carnation, a battered space freighter from the rundown Rezer Merchant Fleet, and the backdrop is the ongoing war between the Hedar and Jerotta empires.

The Carnation is boarded by the Hedarian survivors of the final Hedar/Jerotta battle, in which the Hedar fleet has been destroyed by the Jerotta’s use of new cloaking technology. The Hedarians, commanded by Captain Byrne, forces The Carnation, commanded by Captain Joliffe, to transport them to the Jerotta home world where Byrne hope to take over the Jerotta council with a political/military coup.

However, Byrne is almost broken by the years of fighting and before sinking into a helpless mental and physical lassitude, he gives the third officer, Skean, full powers to ensure that the mission succeeds.

During the journey a number of difficulties have to be overcome, such as being challenged by a Jerotta warship which then mysteriously blows up, and more difficult still, obtaining a new flight permit from administration control. Can the attractive Schell evade the vile intentions of first officer Skean? Can the shape changing alien Radnar avoid being killed by the xenophobic Hedarians? The fight is on for the crew of The Carnation as they set off on a suicidal mission ... Will they live to tell the tale? Will they ever get home again? Most worrying for the shape changing Radnar; will his carnations survive?

Reviews and Awards

I was reminded to a great extend of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... Publisher

An Officer and a Blob (Excerpt)

Prologue

Within the depths of the expanding universe there is an infinite array of heavenly bodies comprising countless galaxies, solar systems and constellations, spread out across the cosmos rather like globules of white yoghurt splashed over an expensive black velvet dress, clearly visible even from a great distance to the naked eye.

But there is another dimension that exists independently to all other areas of the universe that is rather more difficult to detect, and almost impossible to examine, because it is constantly on the move, bouncing through the flatter, duller dimensions as though involved in a vast inter-galactic game of pinball, ricocheting from planet to planet, star to star, and galaxy to galaxy.

This is the Spherical Dimension, in which billions of realities exist, all interlocked and yet for the most part independent of each other. Each reality contains millions of galaxies, billions of worlds, and a googolplex of beings, most of whom are completely oblivious to the fact that they live within an orb that is externally just under a millimetre in diameter.

Life exists within the Spherical Dimension in an almost infinite number of forms; some realities give rise to abstract beings made of thought, song, or simile; others support physical creatures, some of which manage to attain a spiritual or material paradise, while others only get as far as wondering where the next meal is coming from before discovering that they are the next meal.

Societies rise that are based on magic, science, or intuition; some cultures invent religion, but only if there are no gods around already and there isn’t any other way of controlling the populace, but eventually all fade and die as though they had never been… Except for when it doesn’t. Within the probability matrix that is the Sphere, anything, including contradiction, can occur.

Outsiders remain completely oblivious to any of this, and are therefore unaware of the higher dimensions in which unfathomable beings probe the shell of the Sphere, or the flatter dimensions in the which people are made entirely of paper and wood, (and where one bright spark is on the verge of inventing matches), or the really odd lateral dimensions in which everyone lives in truth and harmony.

And then there are an astonishing number of realities in which war is being pursued by the people who live there, an inconsequential state of affairs in Universal terms, but of great importance to those within the conflict. And for those who are about to be unwittingly caught in the cross-fire…